Today was Weightwatchers day! (Opens envelope. Camera sweeps over a lot of anxious-looking different weightloss options) And I lost half a pound! (Half a pound bursts into tears. All the other options, particularly those above three pounds or more, smile through gritted teeth) ...
Half a pound. Well, I suppose it's better than nothing, and it's "in the right direction", but I can't help be given pause for thought. This is what usually happens at Weighwatchers for me - bobbing around the 26-27 stone mark, without any real downward descent to the hideously magical "20 Stone, Just Like I Was in 2004" landmark. I didn't take my water tablets this morning before going, so I'm trying to justify this to myself as being a bit of fluid retention, but I'm not really convincing myself of that argument. I also think, well I was at "TGI Fridays" last week, maybe that added something, even though I was careful with my points ... but again, I'm not sure.
I stayed for the meeting this week, as I did last week. Hearing the other members talk about their experiences is both salient and thought-provoking. I can see myself following their routes and rules to weightloss and making significant in-roads myself. The trouble is, almost immediately my mind wanders to ridiculous images of me being able to run athletically or to stop taking my pills or to even just be one of the fitter members of my own peer group, and I have to reign in the fantasies before I start imagining "The Chariots of Fire" music and the sand and the wind in my hair. The reality of the situation is, there is a lot about my weightloss that I just don't understand. Hearing skelf-like women recount how they previous used to consume 120 points worth of food and drink regularly on a Saturday, or two packets of McCoys in a bun and a Snickers bar for their lunch every work day, it did make me wonder why they aren't a 27-stone man with gout, diabetes and a full beard too. Maybe they didn't spent most nights for four years consuming King Nan kebabs and full-fat Coke, admittedly - but the disparity between what one person eats and another, and the resultant weigh gain, is something which bugs. And the sentence "it's my metabolism" bugs me ever more. So it's a Catch-22!
This afternoon, I have my first diabetic check for three months, with the hot-and-cold nurse that can sometimes be the tersest human being in Scotland (which is against some fair competition, believe me). But that is the reality of the my situation: I need to get thinner, or my ambitions (being a writer, buying a villa in Tuscany, and still being around for the next return of Halley's Comet) will crumble to dust (along with me).
I need to find some way of turning these idle, seemingly-unachievable dreams of being fit and healthy into active, achievable goals.
D'yer wanna be a spaceman?
NO consolation at all, I know, but you already are a writer. Two out of three then. I actually have no wise advice. People do process food differently, no matter what the scientists believe. Just hang in there, at least you should be eating more 'healthily'. I do wish to complain, however, that this page is also displaying a COUPON for glazed donuts. Therein lies a great deal of the difficulty. We are told and sold CONSTANTLY things that used to be rare treats.
ReplyDeleteWV: diarehe. Sounds like a made up one, but oddly appropriate given Deirdre's status.
Hi doc. I don't know what ads you personally are seeing, but I have just applied for the scheme that lets me vet each ad individually. So no doughnuts. I could take the ads down altogether but in an ideal world I'd like to keep them and have more control over what they are. I dont mind ads for WW and Special K - we like WW and Special K. Although there might be a WW rant coming up soon cos they've changed their points system. That's after we bought the points calculator and the kitchen scale and the shopping and eating out guides!
ReplyDeleteNot sure what you meant in the last sentence?
Ah, sorry, the word verification was 'diarehe'. Sometimes they are oddly appropriate. This one seemed to fit with the fact that you have not been feeling well.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know you probably have very little control about which ads come up, again, there is that odd synergy...or maybe the ads search for blogs that discuss weight loss. I am probably a bit too paranoid, the facebook influence most likely.
Pooh on WW. There's another tick you can add to the anti-for-for-profit groups. They really ARE in it for the money. It may be possible to adjust the NEW points system to the OLD points system without too much trouble. My husband has gone through several permutations of WW and managed to ride the changes without too much difficulty.
At least you know someone is reading your blog!
Doc
Our "leader" did say at the meeting yesterday that there would be a way of using the old scales with the new system - but that it was "complicated", and she moved on pretty quickly. But if it's less than £31-worth of complicated, I'll gladly power up the calculator instead! I'm finding the overtly clandestine "ooh, wait until the changes, we can't say anything before that" attitude of WW very annoying actually, and not a little "culty". Especially when my leader said the sentence "Weightwatchers is for life" yesterday. I half expected Tom Cruise to appear from the back of the room, smiling vacantly!
ReplyDeleteOh, and re: adverts. The Groupon doughnut advert seems to have changed to a small black plate of sushi, so someone somewhere is reading this!
Actually, no. After a page refresh, it's back to the livingsocial.com doughnuts ... (Homer gurgle)
ReplyDeleteJohn
ReplyDeleteI used to have a personal trainer (they are expensive, ridiculously so)...I noticed that he trained people of all shapes, sizes and fitness and each were steadily achieving their goals.
The correct diet and exercise and it works. And surprisingly can be fun at times too.
These things take time, you just have to keep trying and don't give up even if you have a bad week. Try and do as much exercise as you can.
ReplyDelete